#What Makes ‘Tokyo Godfathers’ Such a Modern Christmas Classic

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“#What Makes ‘Tokyo Godfathers’ Such a Modern Christmas Classic”

     <span class="mx-1">“I always wanted to die drunk in a nice, old house. I’m halfway there.”</span>
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        By Meg Shields · Published on December 22nd, 2021 
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    <em>Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay about the Christmas vibes of Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers.</em>

It’s Christmas Eve in Tokyo, and three unhoused people rummage through the trash in search of goodies. Gin (Toru Emori) is a middle-aged alcoholic, Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki) a trans woman, and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto), a teenage runaway. While the three sift through the trash, they happen upon an abandoned baby. Armed with very few clues as to the baby’s identity, the eccentric misfits spend the holiday attempting to locate the kid’s home.

Tokyo Godfathers is far more observational, lighthearted, and straightforward than any of Satoshi Kon’s more surreal works. But this gentler touch makes for one of the most charming Christmas films ever made; an animated feature that blurs the line between the goofy coincidence of slapstick and spiritual miracles.

A festive meander through its titular city, Tokyo Godfathers is primarily about the unique warmth of found family and the life-saving importance of being embraced by folks who love you for who you are. It is uncharacteristically warm and welcoming amidst Kon’s filmography. And as the video essay below argues, the film is also an empathetic portrait of Christmas in Japan. Each of the main characters in Tokyo Godfathers has a complicated relationship with faith and consumerism (the opposed poles of the holiday). And as the film unpacks with glee, the mystery child’s discovery provides opportunities for each character to confront their conflicted feelings about the deeper meaning of the season.

Warning: Light spoilers.

Watch “Tokyo Godfather – Christmas/Religions/Japan”:

Who made this?

This video on the unique Christmas vibes of Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers is by Accented Cinema, a Canadian-based YouTube video essay series with a focus on foreign cinema. You can subscribe to Accented Cinema for bi-weekly uploads here. You can follow them on Twitter here.

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    Related Topics: Animation, Satoshi Kon, The Queue
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Meg Shields is the humble farm boy of your dreams and a senior contributor at Film School Rejects. She currently runs three columns at FSR: The Queue, How’d They Do That?, and Horrorscope. She is also a curator for One Perfect Shot and a freelance writer for hire. Meg can be found screaming about John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’ on Twitter here: @TheWorstNun. (She/Her).

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